Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: Taxing Marylanders until they flee - By Ellen Sauerbrey and Dee Hodges Friday, March 7, 2014

Monday, March 10, 2014

Taxing Marylanders until they flee - By Ellen Sauerbrey and Dee Hodges Friday, March 7, 2014

SAUERBREY: Taxing Marylanders until they flee

Squeezing high earners to fill state coffers has opposite effect

By Ellen Sauerbrey and Dee Hodges Friday, March 7, 2014

Maryland, one of the bluest of blue states, is the poster child demonstrating that taxing the rich fails to balance the state budget.

Yet Democrats, who have complete monopoly control on all branches of state government, continue to think that doing the same thing over and over will lead to a different result.

Because of its proximity to Washington, D.C., Maryland is one of the wealthiest states in America. Still, it is plagued by fiscal woes. In a vain attempt to eliminate Maryland’s structural deficit, the administration of Gov. Martin O'Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown has raised taxes, tolls and fees more than 80 times since 2007, while increasing overall government spending by $9.6 billion, or 32 percent, over the same period.

This oppressive tax-and-spend climate is hurting Maryland’s families and forcing many of them to leave the state.

Wealthy and middle-class citizens have been fleeing Maryland, thus denying the state the ability to tax any of their income. Small businesses are moving their jobs to friendlier states.

Between 2000 and 2010, 66,000 people left the state, taking $5.5 billion with them. Maryland has also lost at least 6,500 small businesses.

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